Martial arts teacher who defrauded VA gets 18 months

TAMPA — A former Tampa man who collected military disability benefits while teaching martial arts was sentenced to 18 months in prison Thursday for conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Joshua Bork, 25, used a wheelchair in the presence of a doctor for the Office of Veterans Affairs, but away from the VA he taught Krav Maga, a form of Israeli self-defense.

"I know I have made mistakes," he wrote in a letter filed Tuesday to U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington. "I know that my actions that landed me in jail cause pain, stress and hardship to many people, beyond just my family and myself."

Bork, who was the subject of a Tampa Bay Times story in April, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.

His ex-wife, Madeleine Farhat, who admitted to a part in the scheme, is scheduled to be sentenced in July.